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AP

Health insurers fear young people will opt out

Experts warn a lot of these so-called “young invincibles” could opt to pay the fine instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on insurance premiums. If enough young adults avoid the new insurance marketplace, it could throw off the entire equilibrium of the Affordable Care Act. Insurers are betting on the business of that group to offset the higher costs they will incur for older, sicker beneficiaries.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that about six million people of various ages will pay the tax penalty for not having insurance in 2014, the first year the law championed by President Barack Obama will be fully implemented.

It’s hard to estimate how many of those will be the young and healthy adults insurers are trying to reach, but that subgroup makes up a very small portion of the overall market. Even though it’s small, experts say it could be enough to throw the system’s financing off-kilter…

Premium hikes could be a disincentive for young people weighing their options. Premiums for people aged 21 to 29 with single coverage who are not eligible for government subsidies would increase by 42 percent under the law, according to an analysis by actuaries at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman. By comparison, an adult in his or her early 60s who would see about a 1 percent average increase in premiums under new federal health rules.

Blowback

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Comments

someone needs to tell these people that they voted for barry and now they have to pay…there’s a lot of public employee retiree healthcare that needs to be shifted to barry.care…and they are going to have to pay up

but, it really isn’t funny…this will be a race to the bottom. When a ponzi scheme can’t get new recruits in at the bottom…well it turns ugly.

but it will be over soon anyway. The single payer thing will be here in a few years…after much pain and acrimony. Then there will be peace and justice..just walk in to the doc whenever you want

Experts warn a lot of these so-called “young invincibles” could opt to pay the finetaxfine tax instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on insurance premiums.

And the beauty of this is that the desperate insurance companies don’t get SQUAT!! The feral government is the one that collects the finetaxfine tax and then gets to decided who to bestow this largesse on, other than themselves and their own family members, of course. For the insurance companies, it’s nothing but oblivion … as planned.

Lefties will describe choices (good and bad) in terms of economic benefit. (Think What’s the Matter with Kansas? – they weren’t acting like rational economic actors, according to the author, but making decisions on moral terms, sometimes to their economic detriment.)

So when employers act rationally by cutting employees down to 29 hours a week, or try to keep the workforce below 50, and when young people decide they can pay the tax, pay cash at the doctor’s, and get insurance only when they’re seriously ill because there’s no bar to a pre-existing condition, the libs are surprised??

No doubt there will be some arguments based on lefty “morality”:

“You must buy insurance rather than pay the cheaper tax because it’s for the greater good, citizen.”

Yeah, tell that to graduates with mountains of debt and few job prospects in the Hopey-Changey economy.

i’m one of those “young invincibles” lol. i do agree that it makes sense to just pay the fine if the insurance is more expensive. you don’t want to pay a lot of money for something that you don’t actually end up using. that’s just money down the drain.

Insurers including America’s Health Insurance Plans and The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association recently wrote to federal health officials warning that they feared low enrollment by young adults and proposed beefed up penalties for opting out. Insurers worry the $100 penalty might not be a strong enough deterrent. The penalties jump to $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income — whichever is more — by 2016.

oh… that stinks. -___-

The potential for skyrocketing prices caught the attention of a Democratic state lawmaker in New Jersey, Assemblywoman Celeste Riley. She is so worried about the cost for young people that she helped pass legislation to remove a requirement that students at two-year colleges have health insurance to attend class. But Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the bill last week.

They will simply up the penalty for not signing up for a health plan. Of course, many young people may simply not pay anyway, considering most of them start on the low end of the income ladder and Obamacare will make their financial well being less secure yet.

They will simply up the penalty for not signing up for a health plan. Of course, many young people may simply not pay anyway, considering most of them start on the low end of the income ladder and Obamacare will make their financial well being less secure yet.

rickv404 on July 6, 2013 at 5:15 PM

In that regard, is Obama going to legislate unilaterally again? Maybe I didn’t understand that segment from Schoolhouse Rock about enacting a bill, but I thought it had to pass both houses on Capitol Hill.

They will simply up the penalty for not signing up for a health plan. Of course, many young people may simply not pay anyway, considering most of them start on the low end of the income ladder and Obamacare will make their financial well being less secure yet.

rickv404 on July 6, 2013 at 5:15 PM

I think the amount of the penalty is written into the law. The House would have to vote to change it, and I hope this is one time the GOP would stand firm (yeah, big hope), and say this Band-Aid remedy still won’t fix the fatal flaws.

Of course Obama could issue an imperial decree raising the penalty. But it would be one time that there would be standing to challenge it. Anyone who paid the penalty (under protest) would likely have standing to sue.

Of course Obama could issue an imperial decree raising the penalty. But it would be one time that there would be standing to challenge it. Anyone who paid the penalty (under protest) would likely have standing to sue.

Wethal on July 6, 2013 at 5:24 PM

Obama could decree Life Imprisonment — no doubt with then “free” healthcare — as the penalty for non-compliance. Who would stop him?

As to “standing”, well … that all depends on how the SCOTUS members are feeling after the NSA has a little talk with them …

My 30 year old and 22 year old sons said (a couple of years ago)to me (the evil capitalist tax hating prick that paid for their college educations) “I don’t mind paying a little more if it means everyone can be covered”…..

And the beauty of this is that the desperate insurance companies don’t get SQUAT!! The feral government is the one that collects the fine tax fine tax and then gets to decided who to bestow this largesse on, other than themselves and their own family members, of course. For the insurance companies, it’s nothing but oblivion … as planned.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair on July 6, 2013 at 5:09 PM

I am totally opposed to Obamacare and believe it was intended to destroy our healthy insurance system. However, I have no sympathy for the insurance companies that colluded with the Dems to burden us with this monstrosity. The big insurers must have been awfully gleeful about all of those mandates. I wonder how they took it when they learned that individuals could avoid the mandate by paying only a $95 fine.

I am totally opposed to Obamacare and believe it was intended to destroy our healthy insurance system. However, I have no sympathy for the insurance companies that colluded with the Dems to burden us with this monstrosity. The big insurers must have been awfully gleeful about all of those mandates. I wonder how they took it when they learned that individuals could avoid the mandate by paying only a $95 fine.

obladioblada on July 6, 2013 at 6:08 PM

The middle-level and lower workers in the insurance companies all saw what was coming minus the delusional libtards in their ranks. It was the Dilbert managers and big cheeses who had visions of a government requirement to buy their products dancing in their heads.

Reality socked them in the teeth when their employers started handling calls for people (a good many who stated they were on parole and/or were obviously under the influence) “when do I get my free Obamacare?”